3.01.2005

Yes, it can!Why I won't Apologize for Calling Bush a Fascistnot that anyone has asked me to...

NOTE: I'm posting this in honor of my birthday, 3/3- ms

If you haven't read Fascism Anyone? by Laurence W. Britt, follow that link and do it now. You need to know this information in this election. I'm going to take the 14 points delineated by Britt and put them in perspective here. Remember, these are his points. The commentary is mine.

If there were one point here that didn't apply to this administration, I'd back down. Now check this out:

1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.

Since the attacks of the world trade center, there has been an attempt to control any form of dissent, or criticism of the Administration. Expressions of pride in being an American have taken on an almost militant form, expressed in pervasive displays of flags and pro-American themes in popular music and television.

"The Bush administration's objective of establishing U.S. domination over any potential adversary led to the hubristic, tragic miscalculation of the Iraq war, a painful adventure marked by one disaster after another based on one mistaken assumption after another." Al Gore

2. Disdain for the importance of human rights.

There ought to be limits to freedom.-- George W. Bush

"People have to watch what they say and watch what they do." - Ari Fleisher, White House spokesman 9/26/01*

Since 9/11, people who are suspected of having ties to terrorism have been held indefinitely without access to counsel, courts, and are considered by the Administration to be exempt from the protections of the Geneva Convention. In spite of a recent court decision finding that the detainees do have rights of Habeus Corpus, the Administration has expressed that it has no intention of complying with the order of the court.

The Patriot Act has effectively suspended several protections guaranteed by the Constitution. Authorities may search anyone, at any time without probable cause. They can enter and search your home without notifying you. Communications can be monitored in unprecedented ways without a warrant.

No longer a leader in the fight for human rights around the world, America has been shown committing war crimes in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Grahib, and other locations throughout Iraq and Afghanistan. Photographic and video evidence has been withheld and suppressed by the media and the government. Items leaked through the press show prisoners being sexually violated and there is a number of unexplained deaths. Sy Hersch, the reporter fro the New Yorker who broke the story, has stated that there is video of boys being sodomized. Over 100 children are currently imprisoned at Abu Grahib. The Red Cross has been denied access to prisoners, and the Administration is now known to be keeping undocumented prisoners. Reports are that most of the people being held at Abu Grahib were detained in error. The abuses have been dismissed by Right Wing media personalities as nothing more than "fraternity pranks". A few low level soldiers are being court martialed in an attempt to portray the abuses as the work of a few poorly trained recruits. Documentation exists showing White House attorneys attempted to create a legal argument to justify the torturing of suspected terrorists well before the incidents at Abu Grahib, with full knowledge of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the White House.

Protest is now allowed only in established "Free Speech Zones." Those wishing to attend political rallies with the President or Vice President are required to sign a pledge to support their ticket in the upcoming election, and provide contact information and identification. The campaign reportedly asked a reporter's race before agreeing to issue credentials to cover one event. People have been removed from events for wearing or carrying t-shirts bearing pro-choice and other messages deemed "unsupportive" by the campaign.

"They are all "enemies of civilization," [Bush] said, and they share "a fanatical political ideology.1"

Frequent, nondescript terror warnings are common, usually timed to benefit the Bush Administration's polling numbers, or deflect attention from positive news of his opponent, Senator John Kerry. Former Governor Howard Dean has recently called public attention to the pattern.

4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.

"I'm a war president." -- G.W. Bush

The US invaded iraq in spite pleas from the UN Inspectors who wanted to continue inspections, which found no evidence of WMD's.George Tenet of the CIA stated that there was no reason to suspect Iraq had WMD's. Bush told the American public that Saddam Hussein was an immanent threat, in spite of information to the contrary. An historical, world-wide peace march of 10 million people protesting the US invasion of iraq was dismissed by Bush as a "focus group".

Despite mounting evidence that Bush never completed his obligation to the National Guard, Bush is fond of appearing in front of military audiences. He donned a flight suit when he stood in front of a banner reading "Mission Accomplished" on the USS Lincoln and announced success in the Iraqi invasion. As of right now, 930 American soldiers have died since that announcement.

Bush has been stacking the courts with reactionary judges known to believe that women should be subservient and abortion is murder. When blocked by Congress, Bush has gone so far as to appoint an extreme Right Wing Judge by executive order when congress had recessed.

The Right Wing's hatred of competent women is evident in their treatment of Hillary Clinton, Martha Stewart and Teresa Heinz Kerry.

Britt's words:

Beyond the simple fact that the political elite and the national culture were male-dominated, these regimes inevitably viewed women as second-class citizens. They were adamantly anti-abortion and also homophobic. These attitudes were usually codified in Draconian laws that enjoyed strong support by the orthodox religion of the country, thus lending the regime cover for its abuses.

Bush's support for an amendment to prohibit same sex marriages instigated the first Senate debates on an amendment that would formally limit the "full faith and credit" protections of 10 per cent of American citizens. Several extreme presentations by Senators likened homosexuality to bestiality, and literally prognosticated the end of civilization as we know it if gays were permitted to marry.

6. A controlled mass media.

Fox News, anyone? By the way, you can buy OutFoxed for under 10 Dollars from Amazon.com.

"Gore said media who challenge Bush and Cheney's claims of a link are intimidated by the administration.

"The administration works closely with a network of rapid-response digital Brown Shirts who work to pressure reporters and their editors for undermining support for our troops," Gore said. The term "Brown Shirts" refers to Nazi supporters in the 1930s and '40s." Al Gore

October 25, 2003—US Senator Robert Byrd, on the floor of Congress, on October 17, has explicitly compared the Bush media operation to that run by Herman Goering, mastermind of the Nazi putsch against the German people.

Why does the Bush administration lie so much? It is mainly because Bush's Svengali-like political adviser, Karl Rove, has taken to heart the advice of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." When Lying Pays Off: The Fabrications of the Neo-Cons

7. Obsession with national security.

After 9/11, the government was reorganized around a new Department of Homeland Security, which has so far only served to provide vague warnings of terrorist plots when Bush's poll numbers drop. Bush constantly sates that he has made us safer, but that we are not safe.

8. Religion and ruling elite tied together.

Britt's words:

Unlike communist regimes, the fascist and protofascist regimes were never proclaimed as godless by their opponents. In fact, most of the regimes attached themselves to the predominant religion of the country and chose to portray themselves as militant defenders of that religion. The fact that the ruling elite’s behavior was incompatible with the precepts of the religion was generally swept under the rug. Propaganda kept up the illusion that the ruling elites were defenders of the faith and opponents of the “godless.” A perception was manufactured that opposing the power elite was tantamount to an attack on religion.

Bush's words:

"I've heard the call. I believe God wants me to run for president.2"

"God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East.3"

"And this is my solemn pledge: I will work to build a single nation of justice and opportunity. I know this is in our reach because we are guided by a power larger than ourselves who creates us equal in His image.4"

"Our job as leaders--Republicans, Democrats, nonaffiliateds--is to rally that compassion of America, is to call upon the love that exists not because of government, that exists because of a gracious and loving God."AP story in LA Times, Aug 4, 2000 5"

"I also have this belief, strong belief, that freedom is not this country's gift to the world; freedom is the Almighty's gift to every man and woman in this world. And as the greatest power on the face of the Earth, we have an obligation to help the spread of freedom.6"

“I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.7"

Bush appealed to the Pope for help in getting American Bishops to support his agenda. The Bush/Cheney campaign has solicited churches to provide their member directories to the campaign. it is widely believed that there is a movement of Christian extremists who believe Bush was installed in office by none other than the Almighty.

"Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. He's in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this."

"I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real god and his was an idol,"

"the principalities of darkness. . . a demonic presence in that city that God revealed to me as the enemy".

Halliburton. Media Consolidation. Gutted environmental protections. Rolling back regulations on media consolidation. Creating a Health Care benefit that only benefits the drug companies. Record tax breaks for the wealthy. Secret Energy Policy meetings and a complete refusal to open the records on it.

While Bush's economic policies have targeted the wages and security of working people, his union-busting efforts have tried to undermine the one tool we have available to protect ourselves - our unions.

Bush used rhetoric of "national security" to pursue the anti-union agenda he supported prior to the events of September 11th. In fact, Bush claimed that workers who wanted to preserve their collective bargaining right were opposed to national security and might be supporting terrorist efforts.

11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.

"There were many beautiful books, but as they contained nothing but superstitions and falsehoods of the Devil, we burnt them." - Diego de LANDA, Bishop of Yucatan

"Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings." - Heinrich HEINE, German poet (1797-1856) Used as inscription on memorial at Dachau concentration camp.

Disney was afraid to distribute Fahrenheit 9/11; Michael Eisner said he feared Disney would lose tax breaks for its amusement park in Florida, where the President's brother, Jeb Bush, is Governor.

Linda Ronstadt was ejected from the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas for dedicating a song to Michael Moore;

The Dixie Chicks saw their recordings burned(!) after apologizing for Bush at a concert in England; American radio stations kow towed to a boycott of their music pushed by Right Wing activists.

The publisher for Michael Moore's book Stupid White Men delayed its publication and wanted to shred existing copies the book for its criticism of Bush- it was saved only when American Librarians heard of the plan and mounted an internet campaign in its defense.

An Art dealer in California was driven out of business for displaying a painting that depicted the torture at Abu Grahib.

Media giantClear Channel fired shock-jock Howard Stern for obscenity, though Stern maintains it was because he criticized the Bush Administration.

Whoopi Goldberg was fired from her job promoting SlimFast after a Right Wing uproar resulted from a joke she made about Bush's surname at a Democratic Fundraiser.

The FCC lost its mind when Janet Jackson's nipple was accidentally exposed during half-time at the Super Bowl and sprang into action with attempts to intensify network censorship.

the Union of Concerned Scientists... has announced that more than four thousand scientists have now signed their February statement on scientific integrity--including 48 Nobel Laureates. The group also just released anew report showing that the Bush administration has blithely continued to do what it was originally accused of: Egregiously politicizing science.

Attorney General John Ashcroft recently attempted to have government manuals containing information on forfeiture procedures removed from public access.

I wanted to show the totals for civilian casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq - neither of whom had any history of aggression against America, and who's ruling regimes at the time of our invasion - the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, respectively- had previously been installed and funded by the United States. Subsequent investigations have shown that their was no connection between Iraq and 9/11. Afghanistan has now become a breeding ground for al Quaeda terrorism, and the Taliban is mounting attacks against women who register to vote. Apparently, few statistics are kept on civilian casualties and they are so highly disputed that most agencies don't want to release them.

For 60 years it has been a matter of public record that Prescott Bush helped finance Hitler's rise to power and world war. Later a US Senator from Connecticut, Prescott was father to President George H.W. Bushand grandfather to George W. Bush. Because legal action was taken, Bush's deeds have been a matter of public record since 1942. They were widely covered in newspapers and electronic media at the time. The history is readily accessible8

After the seizures in late 1942 of five U.S. enterprises he managed on behalf of Nazi industrialist Fritz Thyssen, Prescott Bush, the grandfather of President George W. Bush, failed to divest himself of more than a dozen "enemy national" relationships that continued until as late as 1951, newly-discovered U.S. government documents reveal.

Furthermore, the records show that Bush and his colleagues routinely attempted to conceal their activities from government investigators.9

Similar denials have surrounded Arnold Schwarzenegger. It is a matter of public record that his father volunteered for the Austrian Nazi Party and the infamous SA, which engaged in brutal mass murder. Arnold himself has attempted to distance himself from his family's Nazi past. He has made large donations to the Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, which has tracked Nazi fugitives. His backers now claim he attended an anti-Nazi rally at an early age.

On the other hand, he has been linked to statements admiring Hitler for his speaking ability and his ability to gain a huge following. A past indicating a strong authoritarian nature has also been cause for alarm. In 1975, Schwarzenegger yearned for his own Nazi-style rally, "like Hitler in the Nuremberg stadium. And have all those people scream at you and just being [in] total agreement whatever you say."***-[Karl]Rove is quoted in Bob Woodward's best-selling BUSH AT WAR as comparing the reaction of a New York Yankee crowd to an appearance by Bush as being "like a nazi rally."8

There have been rumors about Rove's family having built Birchenau, and information that Cheney, Wolfowitz and others in the Pentagon have ties to a particular brand of French fascism, but I can't find what I consider to be a reliable source for those. If it's out there, I'm confident someone will find it. For now, I have enough documentation of its roots, and we have all seen the pattern of consistent abuses of power.

14. Fraudulent elections.Do you really want me to get started on that coup d'etat in 2000? As of right now, Black Box Voting.org says that up to 30% of the votes in the upcoming presidential elections are not verifiable and cannot be recounted if the machines fail or are subject to tampering.

The head of a company vying to sell voting machines in Ohio told Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."10

“In a way that occurred before but is rare in the United States…somebody came to power as a result of the illegitimate acts of a legitimate institution that had the right to put somebody in power.That is what the Supreme Court did in Bush versus Gore. It put somebody in power,” said Guido Calabresi, a judge on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, which sits in Manhattan.

“The king of Italy had the right to put Mussolini in, though he had not won an election, and make him prime minister. That is what happened when Hindenburg put Hitler in. I am not suggesting for a moment that Bush is Hitler. I want to be clear on that, but it is a situation which is extremely unusual,” the judge said.

“When somebody has come in that way, they sometimes have tried not to exercise much power. In this case, like Mussolini, [Bush] has exercised extraordinary power. He has exercised power, claimed power for himself; that has not occurred since Franklin Roosevelt who, after all, was elected big and who did some of the same things with respect to assertions of power in times of crisis that this president is doing,” he said. 11

That's 14 out of 14. If it looks like a duck.... I know that the Anti-Defamation League has been consistent in asking that images of Hitler not be used in political campaign because they feel that to do so does not honor the victims of the holocaust. Under normal circumstances, I would agree that such imagery should be off limits. Having watched the consistent assault on American values perpetrated by this Administration, however, I am paying particular attention to anything that seems to extend the pattern. Michelle Malkin's new book, In Defense of Internment: The Case for "Racial Profiling" in World War II and the War on Terror, has alarm bells going off.

In Defense of Internment provides a radical departure from the predominant literature of civil liberties absolutism. It offers a defense of the most reviled wartime policies in American history: the evacuation, relocation, and internment of people of Japanese descent during World War II (three separate actions which are commonly lumped under the umbrella term “internment”). My book is also a defense of racial, ethnic, religious, and nationality profiling (widely differing measures that are commonly lumped under the umbrella term “racial profiling”) now being taken or contemplated during today’s War on Terror.

I was compelled to write this book after watching ethnic activists, historians, and politicians repeatedly play the World War II internment card after the September 11 attacks. The Bush Administration’s critics have equated every reasonable measure to interrogate, track, detain, and deport potential terrorists with the “racist” and “unjustified” World War II internment policies of President Roosevelt. To make amends for this “shameful blot” on our history, both Japanese-American and Arab/Muslim-American activists argue against any and all uses of race, ethnicity, nationality, and religion in shaping current homeland security policies. Misguided guilt about the past continues to hamper our ability to prevent future terrorist attacks. - -Michelle Malkin

How kind of Ms. Malkin to offer herself up as a "token torturer".(If the "oppressor" can get members of the oppressed group to do the wet work, they resent the "torturer", and thus themselves, rather than the original author of the oppression.) She's a very attractive advocate for Racism, uh, I mean, Racial Profiling. How can we criticize a "reasonable" action by the Bush administration to protect the country from the ever-present threat of terrorism when such a lovely woman says it's a good thing? Calling it Bigotry, or Xenophobia would be downright unAmerican. From there, it's a short step to locking up certain people of color - beginning with Muslims, of course- for their own protection. What the hell- we already have 2 Million people in prison for mostly non-violent crimes. Nobody that matters will miss a few followers of Islam, now will they?

It hasn't happened yet. Just remember - it DID happen before, and it happened HERE. It happened in Germany to the Jews, some of whom live right here, right now. If we truly want to honor them, we need to recognize the signs when we see them. 14 out of 14 is 14 too many for an American Presidency.